i hope you dance
by jungle dances
Summary: she takes his hand and it's like the first page of a fairy tale. /dylanjosh. happy birthday clara! (:


clara, this one's for you. you're perfect, an amazing author and friend, and i could never miss your birthday so i practically wrote this in 25 minutes yesterday night. the internet was behaving badly - i'm so sorry for the delay. this is named after one of my favorite songs, i love ihyd so much. obviously, this can never measure up to your marvelous standard of writing, but i really hope you like it. have an awesome birthday, clara and much, much, love :)

**prompts:** candy floss, double dates, promise rings, & long-distance relationships

**pairings: ** dylan x josh

* * *

**i hope you dance**

**for clara [ailes du neige]**

.

I hope you still feel small

when you stand beside the ocean,

Whenever one door closes

I hope one more opens,

Promise me that you'll give faith

a fighting chance,

And when you get the choice

to sit it out or dance,

I hope you dance.

-Lee Ann Womack

.

summer ' 04

_It's a summer in the Hamptons, around 7:00 pm, and the setting sun leaves a trail of blazing purple hue, a sea of vibrant yellow poppies in the background, crystalline-blue seawater glistening in the horizon and the tiny silhouettes of two children, a boy and a girl, dance across the marbled walls of the Marvil's summer home. _

_The little girl, with her pink dress billowing in the wind and auburn locks bound up in two messy braids, comes to a sudden halt, gazing at her friend with large, inquisitive emerald eyes. "You're funny. I like you." She decides, smiling prettily. "I'm Dylan and I like __**candy floss**__. Don't you? It's all fluffy and yummy, so good that I could eat it all day long but of course, mommy won't let me." She chatters, beaming happily at the boy in front of her._

_The boy, dark curls falling across his face, grins back, revealing a small gap between his two upper teeth. "Me too. I'm Josh and it's very nice to meet you."_

_._

september ' 13

Her hair is falling in silky red ringlets, framing her round face, clear and soft to perfection, not a trace of acne & pimples, she's officially a size 0, her jade eyes shining against her glittering tan and this dress looks amazing on her yet all Dylan can see is a monster.

A beautiful monster, but a monster nonetheless.

Being completely honest, Dylan can't even remember the last time she hugged her parents, the last time she said an "I love you," and meant it, the last time she smiled genuinely, the last time she talked to her old friends (the ones that actually cared), the last time she did anything remotely classified as "nice".

But times have changed and since when do snobby, spoiled and oh-so popular teenagers, the ones who have the world in their manicured fist, the ones with their bags stuffed with coke bottles (filled with vodka and tequila, of course) and old candy wrappers (stuffed with marijuana and cocaine), the ones who've been labeled as _bitchbitchbitch _and_ hoehoehoe _do nice things?

Never, that's when.

Once upon a time, when fairytales did exist, life was a bright utopia, Dylan had everything she could want from life; Josh, friends who cared and respected her, loving parents and did she say Josh? But it's all gone now, washed away and really, what more was everything than a stupid, silly middle-school fantasy?

That's what she tells herself, at least.

But of course, memories don't fade away that easily and as much as Dylan doesn't want to, she can still remember everything; from the time she first met Josh and all the disgustingly (sweet) things in the middle to the time she discarded him and every asset of her old life like a pair of last season's Choos. She even remembers the exact words, "_Me and you - we're going down the drain, even faster than a __**long-distance relationship**__ and that's just nawt okay,_" the ones that caused the pain in his deep, deep, brown eyes.

It hurts.

But Dylan scoffs, 'cause Josh doesn't really matter anymore and turns back to looking for her brown eyeshadow because what does matter is looking dazzling for the Fall Boulevard and she's not even half way ready yet.

Amongst the piles and piles of expensive makeup and jewelry, Dylan's fingers curl around something tiny, hard and sort-of familiar. A ring.. but it's hardly just any ring, it's a promise ring from Tiffany's.. from Josh. Memories flood through her brain, like an avalanche, gushing out with so much force Dylan feels dizzy.

.

january ' 09

_A love ballad, maybe Taylor Swift, plays softly and serenely in the background, but all Dylan can care about is Josh's arms on her waist as he twirls her around in a way totally inappropriate to the music, chuckling as Dylan throws her head back and laughs, red hair flying everywhere. The song finally ends, and the couple collapses onto the floor, a giggling and panting mess._

_Josh laughs as Dylan almost topples into him, and they narrowly miss crashing into Merri-Lee's strawberry, vanilla, and god-knows-what flavored wedding cake. "Easy there, Dylan, you'll spoil your ring and trust me when I say I will not be able to buy you another one."_

_Dylan stops, staring at the silver band with a tiny green heart on her ring finger with adoration. "You never did tell me what it's for."_

_"Well," Josh smiles at her, sending Dylan's brain cells into a flurry of butterflies, a frenzied mess because her sweet sweet sweet boyfriend got her a ring. "We've been dating for about a year now, and we've gone on all those __**double dates**__, and I think it's time I honored that. You're beautiful and I.. like you a lot, Dylan. A lot. It's a __**promise ring**__. A promise from me to you."_

.

september ' 13

It's almost as if the fake, cruel spell Dylan had put herself in breaks, and suddenly everything just comes crashing down on her. She falls to the ground, tears sliding down her cheeks, faster & faster. Shaking from head to toe, her face a red, blob of mess now, Dylan staggers to the bathroom and pushes the door open, blinking hard to clear the blurriness.

She grabs the first thing she sees, her strawberry shampoo and squirts half the bottle on her hair and face.

Blindly, Dylan reaches for the sink and throws hot, harsh water on her face, the terrible heat causing a small yelp of pain to escape her dry, parched lips._ Scrub. Scrub. Scrub_. Crying harder now, Dylan rubs furiously against her face, scrubbing to remove everything; the memories, the words she wishes she'd never said, the heartless person inside her (the one she hated oh-so-much).

The person she's become.

Minutes pass, and Dylan, finally exhausted, slumped down on a sofa, bedcovers enveloping her, staring at the horizon and wishing she had a time machine, because she's ready to give just about anything to go back in time.

She's not sure how long she's been sitting down anymore, it feels like a millennium yet she has no desire to stand up.

The crunching sounds of footsteps jerk her, followed by a knock on the door and Dylan jumps up, because nobody should be allowed to to see her like this. She stumbles to the door and has barely touched the handle when the sound of a painfully familiar voice startles her.

"Dylan, I know you're in there. Open up." Sweet, boyish… it's Josh Hotz. Suddenly, Dylan's overcome by vertigo again and she's not exactly sure why, but she opens the door and lets the boy who she's missed, the boy who should hate her, in.

"Hey," Josh whispers, and he's so painfully close that Dylan can feel tears prickling her eyes and right now, she wants nothing more than to collapse into his arms and let his sweet fig-leaves and citron-y smell calm her. She opens her mouth to say hi, to smile, to nod but all she can really manage is a weak whimper and she should be ashamed but this is Josh, and his eyes are warm, welcoming like they used to be.. before she walked away on him, back when they were middle school's golden couple and all she wanted was him.

She still wants him.

"I'm sorry." Dylan murmurs frailly, looking anywhere but at him, because she's sure he's going to laugh mockingly and tell her she deserves everything. In a way, she does.

Josh smiles and his smile indicates forgiveness, happiness and most of all, the promise of new beginnings; a chance for Dylan to be happy, to be the princess and write her own fairytale story. He offers his hand, a mischievous sparkle creeping into his eyes. "You've missed the Boulevard and nobody deserves that. Care to dance?"

That's all it takes. Suddenly, Dylan's flying, floating and she's like a bird, the world seems limitless, it's almost as if those words lit a fire inside of her and suddenly she's no longer afraid; it's a moment of undiluted bliss. She smiles, beaming brightly at Josh like she did all those years ago when they first met.

She takes his hand and it's like the first page of a fairy tale.

She's ready to dance again.


End file.
